Permanent Injunction Against Sprout Makers

CHICAGO (CN) – Wholesome Soy Products agreed to stop distributing contaminated soybean sprouts, settling a federal complaint by the United States. The Wednesday order quotes the government as saying that Wholesome Soy’s “articles of food are adulterated within the meaning of l U.S.C. § 342(a)(4) in that they have been prepared, packed, and/or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth or may have been rendered injurious to health.” Owned by Paul and Julia Trinh, Wholesome Soy Products operates out of Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood. The defendants did not admit or deny any of the allegations in the complaint. The consent order requires the defendants to sanitize all the equipment at their facility, and ensure that seeds and beans used for sprouting are stored and transported in a manner that minimizes their risk of contamination. Specifically, the defendants must store the seeds in covered containers off the floor away from rodents, and apply a treatment to the seeds immediately prior to sprouting. The company may not resume operations until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects the facility, and until the defendants have demonstrated that they have adopted measures to educate employees about proper sanitation, plus a sanitation schedule that will ensure pathogens such as Listeria mono are not present. “We must work to ensure that the food we buy from store shelves is safe and produced under sanitary conditions,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a press release.